Israel Keeps Grip on Nablus

The Israeli army's search-and-arrest sweep of a Palestinian city and refugee camp entered its fourth day on Monday and a European envoy gave mid-July as a tentative date for a Middle East peace conference.

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet, the latest high-profile troubleshooter to tackle the 20-month-old conflict, was to arrive in Israel in the evening and meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli security sources said.

They said Tenet, who last year oversaw a short-lived truce-to-talks deal between the sides, would ``listen and learn.''

The United States, Israel's guardian ally, is keen to contain the violence and garner Arab support ahead of a widely anticipated assault on Iraq.

But tensions remained high as the Israeli army kept its grip on Nablus and adjacent Balata refugee camp, both bastions of Palestinian militants. The army, which moved in on Friday, said it was reacting to a spate of suicide bombings and fears more were on the way.

Soldiers on Sunday blew up two buildings which the army said it had found to contain large munitions caches, and continued rounding up suspected militants.

Israel on May 10 ended a six-week military offensive against Palestinian militants across the West Bank with claims of success, but attacks on Israelis resumed two weeks later and troops have raided Palestinian towns repeatedly since.

The raids, coupled with tightened closures and ad hoc curfews, have all but wiped out the agreed boundaries between territory under Palestinian self-rule and that occupied by Israel, negotiated under interim peace deals during the 1990s.

The Palestinian Authority says such conditions will make it difficult to carry out democratic reforms and rein in security organs linked to violence -- conditions set by Israel for reviving talks on a final peace envisaging a Palestinian state.

TENET SEEN HELPING REVAMP PALESTINIAN SECURITY

The CIA's Tenet is expected to help revamp the Palestinian Authority's profusion of security services, accused by Israel of doing nothing to stop, even encouraging, ``terrorist'' attacks.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his aides have denied blame for militant violence against Israeli civilians.

Israel says it has no choice but to act preemptively.

``Our intelligence indicates that army operations in the West Bank since the end of (the offensive) have prevented 40 Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis,'' a security source said. There have been five suicide attacks since May 10.

A Palestinian uprising against continued Israeli occupation in much of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has killed at least 1,378 Palestinians and 486 Israelis since it erupted 20 months ago after negotiations for a final peace treaty became deadlocked.

Palestinian officials said hundreds of Palestinians had been detained in Nablus and Balata, but that many were later freed.

Israeli police said troops in Nablus had also arrested eight foreigners -- seven of them international peace activists supporting Palestinians -- and a journalist identified as Jordanian by the Israeli human rights group Gush Shalom.

Israeli troops in Balata blew up the house of Mahmoud Titi, the local commander of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group who was killed in Balata two weeks ago by an Israeli tank strike.

Military sources said the house had been a ``bomb factory.'' The army said it also blew up a Nablus restaurant which contained ordnance including an explosive belt ready for use in a suicide bombing.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians fired three mortars at the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif but there were no casualties, and soldiers fire back, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Palestinian hospital officials in neighboring Khan Younis said a 17-year-old had been wounded by the gunfire, but his identity was not immediately clear.

SOLANA SAYS SUMMER PEACE TALKS POSSIBLE

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday that ``we are pencilling in the possibility of a conference'' at foreign minister level in the second half of July.

Solana hoped a date for a declaration of a Palestinian state would be agreed during the conference. But Peres said any such decision should be the result of a negotiated agreement.

``I think that any unilateral position or any attempt to have an imposed solution will fail,'' Peres said. ``I prefer to go the way that leads us to an agreement on all the outstanding issues rather than picking up unilateral solutions that will fail.''

William Burns, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, has also been in the region since last week holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Israel says it will not resume political negotiations until violence ceases and the Palestinian Authority undergoes root-and-branch reform. Sharon also wants Arafat removed, an idea which Palestinian officials reject.

Many Palestinians want reform after years of alleged corruption, mismanagement and disarray, but resent Israeli demands for the ouster of Arafat, 73, the icon of Palestinians' quest for independence since the 1960s.

Arafat is expected to reshuffle his cabinet and shake up his security forces soon, possibly this week.

(China Daily June 3, 2002)